Is This Controversial Image The Real Cover Artwork For Kanye West’s ‘Yeezus’?

Kanye West is no stranger to album artwork controversy. He rolled out a few covers for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and the main one (a painting of a nude female angel having sex with a man) was blurred out by many outlets. Well, Yeezy has (maybe) outdone himself with the above crucifixion image, rumored to be the real cover for Yeezus (out June 18).

NME pointed out the Y-crucifixion photo, which is spreading on social media as the purported Yeezus sleeve. Ye’s label reps “refused to confirm or deny to NME whether the artwork is legitimately the sleeve for his new album.” If this is real, it wouldn’t make Kanye the first rapper to depict himself on the cross, for what it’s worth. The video for “Hate Me Now” contained an infamous scene of Nas being lifted up on (and proceeding to rap from) the cross. And, in fact, 2Pac‘s Makaveli album cover depicted an even more overt allusion to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, although it also contained a disclaimer stating, “In no way is this portrait an expression of disrespect for Jesus Christ.”